Painkiller neck without a doubt.
It's not an aggressive neck pickup per se but its is powerful and cutting whilst still sounding like a neck pickup should.
Think EMG 81 ballpark but with boutique/passive/more natural tone.
The painkiller bridge isn't a million miles away from a cold sweat the huge difference comes in the mids and a little less output where the cold sweat has subtle mids and the painkiller has AGGRESSIVE mids.
The painkiller neck picks up where the bridge leaves off without the aggressive mids and a little less power........like the cold sweat bridge you could say!
You can round off the highs and lows of the painkiller neck with a pickup cover but really it's a damned good neck pickup really good for metal shredders but as with the emg 81 it will surprise you with how good it is for cleans and other styles.
BKP lay waste to EMG's in the bridge position and they make excellent neck pickups but an emg 81 in the neck.....it gives you way more possibilities than you'd think and the neck position on any guitar just warms things up in a natural way even when using 'sterile' actives to my ears
